


Spying on Stephen

by emmastrenchcoat



Category: British YouTube - Fandom, StephenTries, Video Blogging RPF, WillNE, xo (not The Weeknd)
Genre: Hidden Relationship, I think that's it - Freeform, I wrote this instead of my exams, I'm so sorry, M/M, Podcast, Spying on friends, WillNE - Freeform, XO (not the Weeknd) - Freeform, ish, look this is gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-08 15:22:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14696937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmastrenchcoat/pseuds/emmastrenchcoat
Summary: And another successful XO podcast is done. But why on earth has Will edited the revelation of a new relationship out? And why hasn't he told Brian and Laurence who it is? The two latter men decide to go and find out why Will is acting so suspiciously, though what they find was entirely unexpected.Once again inspired by buster + black!!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alrighty so I might not be able to update this quickly, but here's the first chaper :)  
> Suggestions alway accepted!

-Will’s Flat-

They had just finished filming another video for XO. Will would ironically categorise it as “rock bottom content”, but they had had fun nonetheless. The Q&A was ready to be edited and it was Will’s turn to do so- thankfully. See, the questions had been pulled from various parts of social media; thus, most of the (serious) questions for Will came from his YouTube following. Of course there were the nasty comments, the sarcastic questions, but the genuine questions he truly liked answering. 

There was one question, however, that he dreaded. And this was the reason he- for once- was glad that it was his go at editing. 

-

“Hello everybody, welcome back to XO, thanks for tuning in with us for another video!” Laurence greeted the audience (or rather, the camera). “So, today we have prepared a Q&A based on inquiries from the comment section here on YouTube”, he continued, “or any other one of our social media platforms-”

“Which you should all go and follow by the way, links will be-” Will interjected, breaking out in laughter as he motioned towards what was now and empty space, but where he’d later put their social media links.

“Anyway, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted”, Laurence shot an angry glance at Will, who knew that it was meant ironically, “we will start with Brian, also known as ‘The True Geordie’!”

The questioning session went smoothly, and each member of the quartet was given a fairly equal amount of speaking time. 

About half an hour into filming, Brian announced a special question.

“Well, it’s only special in the sense that it’s for all of us”, he followed up some nervous glances from the other three men. Laurence smiled, though Will and Stephen- despite doing so too- still looked slightly on edge. 

“Are you single?”, Brian said, grinning as he glanced directly into the camera. 

He looked at the round; none of them seemed particularly eager to answer. He sighed. 

“I’ll start then. No, actually. I thought I’d take this question to announce to you viewers that I have, in fact, got a girlfriend. We’ve been seeing each other for about a month.” 

Stephen opened his mouth as far as he could, indicating satirical shock, as Brian had already told the three men pretty much as soon as they began seeing each other. “No!” he joked, “I thought you weren’t available for all those weekends because of the new massage parlour in High Street!” 

“Ha ha”, Brian mocked, “at least I haven’t been gone on Friday nights like the pair of you”, he continued, gesturing towards Stephen and Will, who looked away. Maybe he was blushing, too.

Stephen, however, kept a pokerface and retorted, “My mum’s been doing bingo, and since she’s the roof above my head I can’t really say no now, can I?”

“Alright, alright”, Brian said, his hands going up as a gesture of defence. “But what about you, Will?”, he inquired. 

Will opened his mouth. He closed it again. 

“Well”, he said, stammering ever so slightly, “Well, I’ve actually got a girlfriend, too.” 

Brian looked at him with wide eyes. This wasn’t really like Will; he liked to keep his private life separate from his YouTube career. 

“What’s her name?” Laurence managed to start the conversation up again. 

“Wouldn’t you like it if I told you that, Laurence?” Will teased, laughing. He was regaining his previous, care-free personality. 

Laurence sighed, Brian changing the topic. He’d heard what he wanted to and did respect that Will didn’t want to share everything with the Internet. 

Brian’s a good lad, Will thought, daring to assume that this was the end of the conversation. But oh boy, was he wrong.

-

“There we go”, Will murmured, cutting out the clip of that particular question, permanently removing it from the wisdom of his hard drive. It was the last piece. Rewatching the video to make sure it was alright, he sighed, logging off. He smiled; he was expecting company soon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this hasn't been updated in f o r e v e r!!  
> I had final exams, but it's summer break now so it's all g

-XO headquarters-

They had just uploaded XO Q&A. It was a Thursday night, and Brian decided to just stay after checking the final version with the gang, both to keep Laurence company (Stephen had left to run an unnamed errand), and because his girlfriend was out with her friends. They were scrolling through their Twitter accounts on their phone. 

“Think we know Will’s girlfriend?”, Brian asked absentmindedly.

“Now who’s nosey?” Laurence mocked, but answering his question with “I honestly don’t know. I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t tell us, either. Though I suppose it’s his decision.” 

“Yeah”, Brian replied dryly. “I wish we could just…get to have our own impression of her, see her in her everyday life.” 

“It’s almost as if you’re suggesting we go and find her”, Laurence joked, Brian looking up from his phone in response. 

“Yes, it’s almost as if I suggested that we go spying on Will”. He smirked at Laurence; a devious plan was brewing in their minds. 

-

Brian and Laurence met again twenty-two hours later. They met in the light of day, yet their plans were cloaked by a night of deception. Will and Stephen had declined filming a video that day, of course, as they had their plans. The cancellation suited Brian and Laurence just fine, as they had formed a plan: that night, they would find Will with his date at whatever location Will would disclose in form of a response to a preplanned text. They would go disguised. They would catch a glimpse of her face as she said goodbye for the night. They would hear her name as Will thanked her for a wonderful evening.  
It was a foolproof plan.  
Laurence was elected as the writer of the text, so he began typing on his phone.

-Will's Apartment-  
7pm. Will was in the shower when his phone buzzed.  
"One new message from Laurence McKenna", he read aloud absentmindedly once he finished.  
"Going out with your girlfriend tonight Will? ;)"  
Will chuckled, replying an affirmation. He looked at the clock; he'd better hurry; his rendez-vous was in half an hour. 

-Somewhere in downtown London, perhaps coincidentally not too far from Will's flat-  
"Haha, yea mate, nothing fancy, trying out a bar down the road", Laurence read loud the first text, then the second that came right afterwards, "Actually gtg, otherwise I'll be late!"  
Brian cracked his knuckles and stared directly at a lamp post nearby. "Mission Will's Date successfully launched", he immitated a commander's voice, attempting to break the fourth wall of a film that wasn't in the making in that moment. To this Laurence chuckled and urged him to hurry. After all, there were quite a few bars "down the road" from Will's flat.  
An hour and a half later they had walked in and out of various bars, asking for a bloke with a square head. If only Will didn't live right on the corner of two streets. It'd be half the work.  
"Where are they?!" Brian groaned. Laurence didn't mind the footwork, but he was beginning to worry that Will's date would end before they knew which bar he meant. Indeed Will wasn't one for drawn out pleasantries.  
Just as they thought they'd never find Will, Laurence spotted something out of the corner of his eye. They were just about to go to one of the last bars in somewhat close proximity to Will's flat as he saw two people walk out of a pub. It couldn't have been anyone but Will. Perhaps there was a film in the making, after all. Brian was too worn out to make a joke about fourth walls.  
They expected the two to part ways, the woman thus turning her face conveniently to where Brian and Laurence were now standing. They were about to uncover a mystery.  
"Shit!" Brain exclaimed as Will laid his left arm around the person's shoulder, both of them walking off in the wrong direction.  
"They're going back to his flat", Laurence murmured.


	3. Chapter 3

-Somewhere in downtown London-  
"Come on!" Laurence ushered.   
Brian scoffed. "We need to keep our distance. You said that yourself!" he retored.   
As they walked along the street, always at an unsuspicious distance, they tried making out anything of the figure next to Will.   
She was shorter than Will, as expected. She wore a coat that almost reached the crook of her knee, and the back of her face as well as her head were covered by a scarf and a hat, respectively. There was absolutely nothing to see, other than her feet. Will hadn't lied. It wasn't very fancy; they were both wearing sneakers.   
"This doesn't tell us anything!" Brian hissed.  
"That's why we're following them!" Laurence retorted.   
As they were following Will, their curiosity grew and grew. Brian even suggested they just pretend as if they were walking the same way and get to finally meet /her/ officially, though Laurence shut down that plan quickly as he said they wouldn't want Will to be angry with them.   
"Perhaps she's just following him home and then she'll leave. Perhaps he's just following her home and we'll run before Will can see us. See? There's nothing to happen that we can't predict."   
At Laurence's attempt to appeal to logos Brian huffed. He agreed, but still didn't want to be patient enough to play hide-and-seek with one of their mates. In his opinion, he didn't see why Will wanted to hide anything at all. It all seemed a bit unfair to him. Then again, he didn't fancy offending Will's wish for privacy either, so he shut of his inner thoughts to focus on Laurence's logical arguments for continuing to stroll casually behind Will and his girlfriend.   
As they entered the tower in which Will lived, the pair of spies realised that they couldn't be taking the lift at the same time as the pair ahead of them. Then again, they couldn't take the lift after them, either. They'd miss Will's girlfriend either when she was going down (there were two lifts) or if she was invited into Will's apartment.   
After Laurence presented Brian with these facts his voice trailed off.   
"Get your safest creps on, Brian. We're doing cardio today."   
Brian made a sound that was a mixture of cringe, laughter, and annoyance at Laurence's joke as well as his proposition.   
They were out of breath after the third floor, and by the time they were on Will's floor a few moments later, they were breathing so heavily they were afraid Will would hear them. Running was the only way to be faster than a lift. Or so they thought. Because as they turned around the corner, they noticed Will and his date must have been there for longer than they thought.   
-Just outside of Will's flat-   
Will closed his eyes as he leaned in for a heated kiss. Pushing his lover against the wall right outside of his flat, he would think that they had enough privacy to keep going for a minute or two. After all, Will's door to his apartment was around a corner, so nobody else in this tower would have reason to turn to the right instead of the left, which is where several other apartments were, after coming out of the lift. Or so he thought. Because as he rolled his hips forwards and broke their kiss he swore he heard a sound- was that a gasp?- coming from behind them. Sure enough he spotted his mate Brian , and with even wider eyes, Laurence, who was just behind him. At this point nobody knew what to say.

-Just around the corner of just outside of Will's flat-   
"Is that kissing?" Laurence speculated, more towards himself than Brian.   
The latter had had enough of little games, and confidently walked around the corner. Laurence rushed behind him as fast as he could, but bumped into the former, who had come to a very abrupt halt. This was due to the fact that he had, in fact, spotted Will kissing. And it wasn't that alleged girlfriend, no: it was none other than Stephen Lawson, /the/ Stephen Tries. Brian opened his mouth and closed it again, taking in the sight before him. Though they had stopped kissing, Will and Stephen had pressed their bodies closer than Brian thought was humanly possible, and one hand still firmly rested on the wall just above Stephen's head, where the other was placed on the curve of where the ginger's abdomen met his hips. Their faces were flushed, their lips glistening. They were breathing almost as heavily as Brian and Laurence.   
"Fucking hell", Brian broke the silence. It wasn't anger. It was an expression of incredulousness.   
"I-" Will tried to start a coherent sentence. "We didn't want to be judged, or cast out, or...so..." He looked at Stephen helplessly. only to find him completely silent, looking as if he was on the verge of tears.   
"Will, Stephen, we-", Brian started again.   
"We would never judge you! My days, this is amazing! We're happy for you!" Laurence finished the sentence. He would hate to have either of the boys in front of him think he'd ever judge them.   
Brian wholeheartedly agreed, adding that he'd never cast anyone out for being in love, of all things.   
"Brian", Laurence added, "I just realised something."   
Everyone stared at him (or perhaps Will stared more at Stephen than at Laurence, but that's beside the point).   
"We haven't only been spying on one member of XO. We've been spying on two!"


End file.
